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In late 1997, the chambers inside the pyramid of the Pharaoh

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In late 1997, the chambers inside the pyramid of the Pharaoh [#permalink] New post 18 Dec 2012, 22:09
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In late 1997, the chambers inside the pyramid of the Pharaoh Menkaure at Giza were closed to visitors for cleaning and repair due to moisture exhaled by tourists, which raised its humidity to such levels so that salt from the stone was crystallizing and fungus was growing on the walls.

a. due to moisture exhaled by tourists, which rised its humidity to such levels so that salt from the stone was crystallizing
b. due to moisture that tourists had exhaled, thereby raising its humidity to such levels that salt from the stone would crystallize
c. because tourists were exhaling moisture, which had raised the humidity within them to levels such that salt from the stone would crystallize
d. because of moisture that was exhaled by tourists raising the humidity within them them to levels so high as to make the salt from the stone crystallize
e. because moisture exhaled by tourists had raised the humidity within them to such levels that salt from the stone was crystallizing

Doubt 1:
In OE for options C and D, it is mentioned that "them" in C and D seems to refer to tourists. But OE for E says that "them" in E clearly talks about chambers.
My understanding for this is as below reasons can you please confirm if my analysis is correct ?

In E : "exhaled by tourists" is a modifier that is modifying moisture and so the sentence "moisture had raised the humidity within them" is the sentence and so it is more clear that "them" refers to chambers.

In D: "tourists raising the humidity within them" "raising the humidity with in them" modifies "tourists". Hence, it looks like "them" refers to "tourists".

Not sure of the case with C.

Doubt 2:
In option A, idiom "such levels so that" is used. Is this correctly used ?

Doubt 3:
It is mentioned that "due to" is used imprecisely to express causal relation. Can you please eloborate on how "due to" can be used effectively to express these relations?
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Re: OG question [#permalink] New post 18 Dec 2012, 22:39
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dc1509 wrote:
In late 1997, the chambers inside the pyramid of the Pharaoh Menkaure at Giza were closed to visitors for cleaning and repair due to moisture exhaled by tourists, which raised its humidity to such levels so that salt from the stone was crystallizing and fungus was growing on the walls.

a. due to moisture exhaled by tourists, which rised its humidity to such levels so that salt from the stone was crystallizing
b. due to moisture that tourists had exhaled, thereby raising its humidity to such levels that salt from the stone would crystallize
c. because tourists were exhaling moisture, which had raised the humidity within them to levels such that salt from the stone would crystallize
d. because of moisture that was exhaled by tourists raising the humidity within them them to levels so high as to make the salt from the stone crystallize
e. because moisture exhaled by tourists had raised the humidity with them to such levels that salt from the stone was crystallizing

Doubt 1:
In OE for options C and D, it is mentioned that "them" in C and D seems to refer to tourists. But OE for E says that "them" in E clearly talks about chambers.
My understanding for this is as below reasons can you please confirm if my analysis is correct ?

In E : "exhaled by tourists" is a modifier that is modifying moisture and so the sentence "moisture had raised the humidity within them" is the sentence and so it is more clear that "them" refers to chambers.

In D: "tourists raising the humidity within them" "raising the humidity with in them" modifies "tourists". Hence, it looks like "them" refers to "tourists".

Not sure of the case with C.

Doubt 2:
In option A, idiom "such levels so that" is used. Is this correctly used ?

Doubt 3:
It is mentioned that "due to" is used imprecisely to express causal relation. Can you please eloborate on how "due to" can be used effectively to express these relations?


Your understanding for D and E seems to be correct. But I would like to add one point here. Its not the proximity which defines the pronoun referrent but the subject of the sentence. In E, there is only one clause and that itself has "chambers" as the subject. Whereas in D, the relative clause starting with "that" contains "tourists" as the subject.
This is the reason for ambiguity and hence incorrect.

Option C is a total disaster in that :
i) because + verb-ing form is incorrect on GMAT
ii) "them" may refer to "tourists".
iii) usage of "such that" implies intention, nowhere mentioned in the intended meaning. Hence incorrect.

Doubt 2: "such levels so that"- incorrect because of two issues:
i) such levels implies that we have already talked about some levels and here mean to refer to those levels only, but nowhere we have talked about some levels.
ii) so that implies intention, which is incorrect here.

Doubt 3: Yes "due to" is used to show a causal relation. Whenever you see "due to" just replace it with "caused by" and then analyze whether there is any causal relation or not. If there is then "due to" is fine.

Hope that helps.
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Re: OG question [#permalink] New post 19 Dec 2012, 05:27
dc1509 wrote:
In late 1997, the chambers inside the pyramid of the Pharaoh Menkaure at Giza were closed to visitors for cleaning and repair due to moisture exhaled by tourists, which raised its humidity to such levels so that salt from the stone was crystallizing and fungus was growing on the walls.

a. due to moisture exhaled by tourists, which rised its humidity to such levels so that salt from the stone was crystallizing
b. due to moisture that tourists had exhaled, thereby raising its humidity to such levels that salt from the stone would crystallize
c. because tourists were exhaling moisture, which had raised the humidity within them to levels such that salt from the stone would crystallize
d. because of moisture that was exhaled by tourists raising the humidity within them them to levels so high as to make the salt from the stone crystallize
e. because moisture exhaled by tourists had raised the humidity with them to such levels that salt from the stone was crystallizing

Doubt 1:
In OE for options C and D, it is mentioned that "them" in C and D seems to refer to tourists. But OE for E says that "them" in E clearly talks about chambers.
My understanding for this is as below reasons can you please confirm if my analysis is correct ?

In E : "exhaled by tourists" is a modifier that is modifying moisture and so the sentence "moisture had raised the humidity within them" is the sentence and so it is more clear that "them" refers to chambers.

In D: "tourists raising the humidity within them" "raising the humidity with in them" modifies "tourists". Hence, it looks like "them" refers to "tourists".

Not sure of the case with C.

Doubt 2:
In option A, idiom "such levels so that" is used. Is this correctly used ?

Doubt 3:
It is mentioned that "due to" is used imprecisely to express causal relation. Can you please eloborate on how "due to" can be used effectively to express these relations?



You analysis is fine. I agree with Marcab above that pronoun usage here is based on the sentence construction (tourist (subject of the clause) ....and hence the pronoun 'them' refers back to 'tourists' and not chambers and you can check if replacing 'due to' with 'caused by' still makes sense

more about due to VS because--- Due to modifies Nouns only and Because modifies Clauses. Due to will show direct causal relation to the Noun

eg-- From the helicopter, I saw a 6-mile long traffic jam, due to an overturned truck --'due to' modifies noun JAM caused directly by the overturned truck.

eg--I came late to the meeting, due to the traffic --The usage is INCORRECT since 'due to' modifies noun Meeting and the traffic does not cause the meeting (not a direct causal relation)
to correct it we will use because.
I came late to the meeting, because of the traffic. Here Because modifies the entire previous clause 'I came late to the meeting'

HTH
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Re: OG question [#permalink] New post 19 Dec 2012, 07:12
A series of doubts have been raised and answered on this episode. If have that much of time to think about, well you can and should go through this kind of algorithm. However, for those who may not be unfortunate to afford that luxury, here is a short- cut via grammar. As per the tenets of Parallelism, what form follows after -and -, should be there before- and - also, especially when the second arm is un-underlined. In this context, the text says in the second part -- and fungus was growing on the walls. – To go in tandem with this past progressive tense after - and- , we should have yet another past progressive tense before the –and-. You might see only A and E have such //ism.
In A, such levels so that is bad idiom; such levels that is the right idiom. So, E is the choice.
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Re: In late 1997, the chambers inside the pyramid of the Pharaoh [#permalink] New post 02 Jan 2013, 06:37
Can someone edit this option. In Option E, it should "WITHIN" instead of "WITH".

I chose option D, just because of this small typo.
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Re: In late 1997, the chambers inside the pyramid of the Pharaoh [#permalink] New post 03 Jan 2013, 16:57
E is the best answer but not a perfect one.
"because moisture exhaled by tourists had raised the humidity within them" - there is no clear referrant of "Them" it could also refer to the tourists
Re: In late 1997, the chambers inside the pyramid of the Pharaoh   [#permalink] 03 Jan 2013, 16:57
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